The Programme has the full support of the University Executive Board, with UEB members attending and engaging with each of the three modules.

The purpose of the Programme is two-fold:

1. To build the leadership capability required to respond to the dynamic external environment in which we operate, recognising the key role that Heads of Schools and Centre/Institute Directors play in achieving and sustaining our success.
2. To provide Heads of Schools and Centre/Institute Directors with the opportunity for continuous personal development, where they can build and enhance their leadership skills, which in turn will contribute to their success in providing strategic leadership their own academic unit.

The Programme consists of a half day induction event, a leadership 360 degree feedback tool, 3 x 2 day workshops and a half day close/evaluation event. Optional 1:1 coaching sessions are also available. The Programme is complemented by optional supporting knowledge sessions on Queen’s processes and governance facilitated by Professional Services.

Induction Event

This short 2 hour event positions the event in the context of senior leadership at Queens and explores how the Programme is underpinned by the Queen’s leadership and management framework. The event also looks at the intentions, ethos and approach to learning of the Programme alongside the participant expectations. There is also an opportunity to find out more about the leadership 360 and optional coaching sessions.

Workshops

Running throughout all workshops is the opportunity, in engagement with a contributing UEB member, to help shape and give feedback on the themes and priorities of the new Queen’s strategic plan.

• Workshop 1 – Setting Direction
  This 2 day workshop explores strategy and distinctiveness, the future of HE and scenario planning as a Strategic Thinking Tool. It also gives participants the opportunity to explore a strategic HE Case Study, and look at a strategic assessment of their own School.
  
  
• Workshop 2 – Engage Commitment
  This 2 day workshop explores Bridge-Building leadership which helps create new connections between the diverse elements of the university to enhance collaboration and inspire innovation. It looks at alignment and engagement as well as influencing and engagement strategies. A key aspect of this module centres on building high performance teams and team effectiveness (with an opportunity for participants to assess their school leadership team against the team basics model.

• Workshop 3 – Adapt to Complexity
  This 2 day workshop explores the nature of leadership in a changing world and the adaptive leadership challenges of participating leaders. It looks at the lived experience of change and leading through change and complexity as well as aligning culture and strategy (diagnosing school culture using the Denison Culture Model).

Leadership 360 feedback process - The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)

The intention of the leadership 360 degree instrument is to provide feedback, at an individual level, that enables greater self-awareness and facilitates the development of a personal leadership development plan.

Leadership Coaching

Coaching is a one to one, confidential process that seeks to reinforce and embed learning achieved through the leadership workshops and leadership 360 degree instrument, leading to more effective resultant actions. It helps individual leaders see more clearly the patterns of relationships and connections that produce the current state and identify solutions to improve outcomes. The sessions focus on developing a plan for the leader to improve their own leadership effectiveness and/or a plan to improve the performance of the unit or team they are responsible for.

The Programme gives time and space to reflect in a busy world. It takes a blended approach to learning informed and underpinned by research with the operating principle that there is no “one right way”.

The Programme aims to build a leadership learning community and focuses on the “real world” leadership challenges of the participants, giving voice to diverse views.

• The Programme Outline

In line with Covid 19 pandemic government advice, our face to face learning and development delivery has been paused.

Our supporting knowledge sessions, on internal processes and governance, specifically designed to support those in a Head of School/Centre Director role, and facilitated by our Queen’s experts in these areas, will be scheduled for a later date. In the interim, our professional services staff from these areas continue to work with and provide support to our Heads of School on an ongoing basis.

To enhance Heads of Schools and Centre/Institute Directors knowledge of Queen’s processes and governance as relating to their role, the Programme is complemented by a series of optional supporting knowledge sessions.

These short 2 to 2.5 hr sessions, are facilitated by colleagues in Professional Services and cover areas such as University Governance and Structure of the University, Financial Management,Governance and Planning, Supporting the Student Experience, Supporting Research and Enterprise, Recruitment & Selection procedures (as applies to Chair of the panel) and Employee Relations (Investigations and panel members roles and responsibilities) and Managing Fixed term Contracts.

These sessions provide a great opportunity to “ask the expert” your questions and queries in these areas.

This session will cover how the University works with Schools to support and develop students as learners through the provision of a range of strategies and services including Student Disability and Wellbeing, the Centre for Educational Development, Careers EmployabiHty and Skills, the Learning Development Service, International Student Support, Student Registry Services and the Graduate School.

The session will also touch on the key student surveys such as the NSS, PTES and PRES and finally how we manage and process student data.

The goal of this session is to refresh Heads of Schools and Directors knowledge of Queen's processes and procedures related to recruitment. Build upon your understanding of strategic recruitment, attraction, and candidate engagement. Provide an introduction/demonstration of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Cover exceptional hires such as business cases, salary packages, salary comparison and time commitments from a HOS throughout the process.

This programme may be complemented with further 1-2-1 sessions on specific core areas requested such as ATS etc.

This session aims to improve knowledge and understanding of the role and responsibilities of Heads of Schools throughout the research grant lifecycle. The participants will gain an understating of the processes, controls, policies and procedures in support of research (pre and post award) and will have an opportunity to engage with experts across a number of areas (Research and Enterprise, Research Finance and Faculty Finance).

Heads of School have significant responsibility in the awarding of degrees and the setting and maintaining of academic standards. This authority is delegated down from Senate through the Scheme of Delegation.

The Registrar's Office and Academic Affairs will work together to present the University's Scheme of Delegation from Senate down to Boards of Examiners, describing how Schools and Faculties contribute to and shape decisions through the University committee structure, and ultimately provide assurance to Senate that, as a University, we are fit to award degrees.

A key element of the Head of School role involves managing people and with this comes responsibility for dealing with employment and equality issues and disputes.Through this session, you will gain a broad understandingof your responsibilities when managing employee relations (ER) and equality issues together with any associated legal obligations incumbent on you.

The workshop will introduce you to a range of topics covering areas such as: managing disability cases; managing fixed term contracts; bullying and harassment: stress at work; conducting fair investigations: responsibilities of panel members in ER cases; responsibilities of management in tribunal claims".

Building upon the Finance Training Programme and based on feedback from a number of Heads of School, the Senior Management Team of the Finance Directorate has developed a series of fnance knowledge sessions' to compliment the Head of School Development Programme. Further detail of each of these sessions incorporating Financial Management, Finance Services and Governance is set out below.

To book on to any of the above sessions, please email stafflearning@qub.ac.uk.